Clusters are the heart of the new curriculum. They exemplify the concept of connected learning: that students share an intellectual excitement when courses connect and are related to each other. Each cluster focuses on the multidisciplinary study of a particular topic, theme, problem, region, or period. A cluster is constituted by a convener and affiliated faculty members.

The aim of clusters is to allow students to examine a general problem or issue from a variety of different disciplinary perspectives. In an increasingly complex world, no single discipline is adequate for examining the breadth and depth of most topics. Thus clusters offer students the unique opportunity of guided multidisciplinary inquiry and provide a centerpiece for a liberal arts education.

The clusters draw on the richness and diversity of our nationally acclaimed research faculty. Cluster faculty will meet and exchange syllabi regularly and may offer special multidisciplinary events, including speakers, colloquia, and other group activities to facilitate student-faculty interaction.

Every student entering after the fall of 1994 must complete one cluster prior to graduation. To accomplish this, students need to complete three courses, from at least two schools, from those listed in the cluster. Transfer students who enter Brandeis with 14 or more course credits are exempted from one cluster course--they must complete two courses from at least two schools. Occasionally courses may be added to a cluster or new clusters added to the curriculum after a student has taken such courses. In such cases, students may petition a cluster convener to count courses previously completed toward their cluster requirement. These petitions must be approved by the cluster convener and the chair of the Clusters Program Committee. Under exceptional circumstances, (e.g., studying abroad, change in course offerings) when the cluster requirement cannot otherwise be completed, students may petition to substitute a course in place of one they were planning to take to complete the cluster. The course proposed for substitution must be related to the cluster theme and must be approved by the convener and the cluster committee.

Cluster courses may be taken any time during a student's undergraduate career, but students are advised to begin their cluster course work in their first year. While most courses in a cluster do not require prerequisites, some do. Cluster courses can fulfill other University requirements, as well. Students select courses within a cluster based on their interests and backgrounds.

Courses of Instruction

Cluster 1: The Aging Process

Convener: Margie Lachman

The cluster addresses the biomedical, psychosocial, and ethical issues associated with growing older in our society and in other cultures. The goal is to understand the basic human developmental processes of aging (physical and psychological) and to examine how they play out in the context of society and culture.

Cluster 2: The Baroque. Discontinued.Students who entered Brandeis before fall term 1999, who wish to complete their cluster requirement via Cluster 2, should consult the Office of the University Studies Program.

Cluster 3: Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism in the Third World

Convener: Silvia Arrom

Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East have experienced centuries of control by imperial powers. This cluster explores the impact of colonialism--and in independent countries, of neo-colonialism--on the politics, society, economics, and cultures of Third World countries, as well as the reactions of the subject peoples. Courses provide perspectives from anthropology, history, literature, politics, and sociology, and contrast the views of both colonized and colonizers.

Philosophy, anthropology, sociology, and literature have focused on conceptions of the person and of the self. This topic provides a pivot for discussion of the way human beings conceive of themselves in relation to the natural and social world, and the way these conceptions influence human values.

This cluster focuses on the creative impulse and process, the workings of the imagination, the makings of a creative environment, and the possibilities for creativity in any field or arena. Opportunities are provided for the exploration of creativity from varied points of view: theoretical, historical, scientific, and "hands on" or experiential.

What human behaviors, in what situations, come to be called "crimes," and what manner of human beings come to be called "criminals"? What are the causes of criminality and how can they be reduced (if they can be)? How are crimes detected and how should adjudged criminals be thought of and treated? Answers require the perspectives of sociology, law, anthropology, history, philosophy, literature, biology, and forensic science.

The relationship between women and men has always been the subject of the media, usually from a male perspective. Painting, sculpture, music, film, literature, popular culture, journalism, and every other form of communication have portrayed, and thus created, gender. This cluster examines how gender is portrayed in cultural objects.

This cluster provides a broad study of the physical and human universe. We explore the origins and workings of the universe, planet earth, humankind, the brain, and human perception. These themes and our perception of them are explored further in the history of cosmological thought, and through classical myth and literature.

The European era that includes the 18th century, known as the Enlightenment, consists of some of the greatest achievements of Western civilization. From philosophy, literature, and drama to music and art, the mind of Europe was at its full flower. All this occurred during a period of great social upheaval that culminated in the French Revolution. This is a cluster of study to engage the most inquiring minds.

This cluster focuses on the structure of and processes in families and households at different times and in different cultures. It provides an understanding of this most basic of social institutions as well as of the similarities and differences among the various disciplines that study it.

This cluster analyzes cultures around the world and the ways in which they generate and sustain hierarchies based on gender, race, and class. It combines analyses of cultural practices, political systems, economies, and legal structures to understand the maintenance of inequalities. Drawing on a variety of feminist perspectives, the cluster courses also explore avenues for social transformation.

The motion picture medium is a vivid reflection of and powerful influence on society. The cluster on film and society offers an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective on film as an art to be appreciated and as a cultural force to be reckoned with.

Food is among the essentials of life. What is food, how do our bodies use it, and what is the impact of diet on the chronic diseases of humans? How has the world's population obtained adequate food in the past? What policies and programs have been developed to help promote adequate production and equitable consumption of food in the world? How can these policies be strengthened to end hunger and provide adequate food for the world's growing population? Students pursuing in this cluster will have the opportunity to explore many of these questions and to learn about food from a variety of perspectives.

This cluster examines social, psychological, legal, political, and economic factors that shape the work of women and men. Work is understood broadly to include the professions, scholarly work, science, and art as well as industrial and service occupations and housework. The gendered meanings and divisions of work are addressed critically. The primary focus is on contemporary United States, although some analyses of 18th- and 19th-century America as well as Europe will be included.

Cluster 16: The Global Commons: Environmental Issues in International Relations

Convener: Robert Art

Environmental issues have taken a prominent place in international politics ever since the 1972 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. This cluster examines the full dimensions of environmental degradation on a global scale and the efforts to retard and reverse it.

This cluster contains basic courses on aspects of the civilization of Ancient Greece and Rome, specifically, their art, archaeology, history, mythology, and, in the case of Greece, its philosophy. There are also basic courses in comparable fields during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The goal is to provide the student with a broad view of the culture of classical antiquity and the creative and critical reinterpretation of it that took place in Europe before the modern era.

This century has seen unprecedented global changes in human numbers, numbers that will be dwarfed by the changes that will occur in the coming decades. To put these changes into perspective, this cluster explores various aspects of human demographics, including growth, migration, and decline in various times and places. The cluster draws on the vantage points of disciplines in the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities.

This cluster deals with some immensely complicated cognitive capacities that underlie intelligent behavior--capacities that we acquire naturally and easily and take for granted. Different approaches to this topic are presented. These include psychological experimentation, efforts to program language processing and problem-solving skills into computers, studies of how cognitive capacities are neurologically organized and of how they relate to cultural systems, and a consideration of how theorizing in these various domains of inquiry reflects and is illuminated by philosophical ideas.

The question of justice has always been central to political theory and moral philosophy. Students in this cluster will confront various perspectives on justice emerging from different traditions of thought in different historical periods; they will also examine conceptions of individual responsibility as well as political ideals and institutions.

Is truth independent of our modes of justification and basic assumptions about the world? Is moral truth independent of culture and convention? Or is truth perspectival and "constructed" by social forms and individual subjectivity? These central questions are approached through a broad range of courses in the humanities and the sciences.

Health and health care are among the dominant concerns of any society. In modern society, health care has become so technologically sophisticated and organizationally complex that a single discipline is no longer adequate for understanding its dimensions. This cluster examines the scientific basis, social and legal organization, and psychological and ethical issues surrounding health and medical care.

This cluster brings the insights of five disciplines to bear on understanding South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean during the 19th and 20th centuries. It shows how social, economic, political, and intellectual developments are interrelated and encourages students to consider Latin America's strengths and problems from a Latin American perspective.

The extraordinary experience of modern Russia--encompassing czarist autocracy, communist totalitarianism, and the current turmoil of transition to a more liberal social system--is examined from the perspectives of the social sciences and of the literature of the period.

The culture of modernism sprang from the unsettling but liberating experience of uncertainty in Europe and America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Artists, writers, and philosophers deliberately discarded tradition and experimented with radically new ideas and forms of expression. Students will examine the sensibility of modernism through courses drawn from a variety of disciplines dealing with European and American culture.

With the Cold War's end, the destructive forces of nationalism have appeared with full force in central Europe and the former Soviet Union. But nationalism is a force as old as the nation-state and is global in its manifestations. This cluster examines the origins and effects of nationalism in world politics and the international attempts to cope with it.

The question of the contributions of biology and the social environment to human behavior and human nature has been debated for more than two centuries. This debate has increased salience with the emergence of the new genetics and neuroscience. This cluster examines the issues of nature and nurture from a variety of social and biological perspectives.

This cluster provides multiple perspectives on the uses and abuses of power by states, political systems, and individuals and an investigation of the relation of class, gender, and race to the structures of power. The perspectives range across political theory and philosophy, studies of political structures from diverse Western and non-Western societies, and examples of political movements and fictional narratives that illuminate and critique political realities.

The courses in this cluster will provide a forum for the study of the art, literature, music, history, and culture of the Renaissance from its inception in Italy in the late 15th century to the closing of the theaters in England in 1642.

The emergence of scientific determinism during the Enlightenment guided the Western image of the universe for over 200 years, but has recently come under attack on scientific, philosophical, and political grounds. This cluster examines the content and principles of scientific determinism and its impact on philosophy and culture in general, as well as contemporary challenges to this world view.

There are no easy answers to reducing human poverty and to managing, rather than damaging, the environment. Environmental degradation, human poverty, scarcity of resources, and ineffective institutions handicap development efforts. This cluster introduces students to a variety of different approaches to sustainable development. The designated courses in the social sciences and the sciences give particular attention to problems in the lower income countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

This cluster explores the city in time and space from several perspectives in order to address a number of questions. What is a city? What functions does it perform? What are its origins and composition in the ancient world (Athens, Rome, Pompeii), and how do these relate to modern cities? Is there a city yet to be built that will enrich and further human development?

Throughout history, scientific discoveries and their technological applications have changed the contours of our lives. This cluster explores the differential impact of scientific advances and cognition on politics, social values, religious beliefs, and the arts. Courses from biochemistry, computer science, history, politics, sociology, Near Eastern studies, and comparative literature emphasize the interdisciplinary dimensions of science in our world.

Courses in the visual literacy cluster allow students to explore the power of images. In spite of Americans' growing sophistication at the end of the 20th century, we continue to be moved--consciously and unconsciously--by the pictures we see in print, on television, in movies, and even in museums. Visual literacy courses examine the role of images in our society by investigating images much as written texts have always been analyzed. These courses trace an image-conscious sensibility in literature, art, popular culture, politics, and even the sciences.

This cluster explores the experience of women in the United States from colonial times to the present. Looking at gender roles from a variety of perspectives, and listening to women's voices as represented in sources ranging from social policy to poetry, painting, biography, and history, the cluster will investigate the gendered dimensions of female experience in America as well as the divisions among American women.

The aim of this cluster is to provide an examination of women in pre-modern and non-Western cultures. Sub-areas considered by courses in the cluster include artistic and literary creation, family life, and religious ideas from historical and comparative perspectives.

The purpose of this cluster is to introduce the student to some of the important cultures of the non-Western world. It accomplishes this by offering a choice of introductory courses designed to provide a broad acquaintance with a variety of traditions.

Western Europe first emerged as a cultural force following the fall of the Roman Empire when a patchwork of barbarian tribes gave rise to a network of kingdoms that foreshadowed today's national states. Basic features of European civilization, from its language to its religious and educational institutions, were formed during this period. Students explore this creative process from an interdisciplinary perspective.

A system of interdependent decision-makers has the potential for symbiotic cooperation or mutual detriment: war or peace, ecological balance or catastrophe, strength in numbers or recrimination. What factors shape the outcome? Does cooperation require the suspension of self-interest or its enlightenment? How do self-organizing dynamic systems evolve?

To quote an old song, "It's not what you do, it's the way you do it." What gives theater its special quality? What makes a reader of a play or a spectator in an audience see, feel, or understand things about life? Some courses in this cluster explore not just what happens in a play but how it happens: in other words, how the playwright, the actors, the director, and the designers structure the contents to make their work say what they want it to say. Other courses examine performance in life--the ways in which we and our relationships to others are perceived, not just by who we are but by how the forms of our behavior reveal ourselves.

Romanticism in European and American literature, philosophy, religion, art, and politics, along with its historical context, its relationship to earlier cultural movement, and its consequences down to modern times.

The rights and responsibilities of modern democratic life are defined through legal and political processes, supported by the framework of social values. These courses explore changing concepts of individual welfare and social citizenship; examine the comparative strengths of courts, legislatures, and bureaucracies in shaping the public interest; and ask how modern welfare states should evolve in the coming decades.

Seminar: The Politics of the Modern Welfare State: Women, Workers, and Social Citizenship

Cluster 45: Religion: People of the Book

Convener: Bernadette Brooten

Religion shapes the world values to a far greater extent than generally recognized. Within this cluster, students can explore comparatively several world religions and learn theoretical frameworks for understanding them. They can examine foundational texts, such as the Jewish and Christian Bibles; major religious art works, institutions, and practices; as well as religious conflict, such as that between religion and science.

Although we tend to believe that our sexualities express universal and unchanging truths about ourselves, various societies and historical periods reveal markedly different organizations of sex. This cluster explores sexuality as the set of beliefs, representations, and ethics surrounding individuals' relations to their bodies. How has the sexed body and its pleasures been made socially meaningful?

The presence of disease is a significant and constant element in human history. This cluster analyzes the biological bases of diseases, of infectious and of non-infectious origin, and the new biomedical technologies developed to treat disease. It also examines society's past and present reactions to disease, including medical, philosophical, legal, political, and cultural responses.

This cluster enables students to understand how different cultures have made sense of human experience in relation to the spiritual: the realm of the divine, the realm of animal spirits, and the supernatural. In other words, "whatever is grave and constant in human experience."